Pad Thai Recipe

Two years ago, about this time, Jaden was in Los Angeles. It was the second time we met in person, and she had just gotten an offer to write a cookbook from Tuttle Publishing. She was teaching a cooking class in LA and I was there to help (and also to learn from her about teaching a cooking class!). We went to dinner together, with a few others, after her cooking class.

I brought a beautiful Shangri-La cookbook to show her during the dinner, and she looked at me and said:

“I love this book, but it feels almost too perfect. I think when I create my book, I’d like it to be totally friendly, easy and just full of my personality…which ISN’T perfect!”

Two years later, Jaden did it. Flipping through “The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook,” I can’t help but notice what a “real” cookbook she has put out: her gorgeous food photography (there are no food stylist and food photographer to pretty up her dishes—it’s all the work of Jaden), easy and accessible recipes perfect for everyday cooking, and her usual goofy and irreverent writing style (who else would spell “soooo looooong” and write about “playing footsie” in a cookbook!).

Jaden has come a long way, from the early days when she first started blogging. Her slew of successes—TV appearances, cookbook, food writing, speaking at events, Twitter power, etc.—are not pure luck. Jaden works hard, very hard. Many a night in the past two years, Jaden would work past 2 am her time, working on her cookbook, blog, writing assignments, and food photography. I know it because we would email each other when it was 11 am PST or 2 am EST her time. She is one of the most ambitious people that I have ever met—extremely smart, savvy, multi-talented, but most importantly, she is genuine, warm, and sincere. I feel very proud that she has called me a friend, even a sister, and someone whom she trusts. I wanted to congratulate her on the launch of her beautiful cookbook, to thank her for everything, and also to wish her even more successes in the future!

Pad Thai Paste???? I cook Pad Thai often, and have only once used Pad Thai paste. As this one dish is at the top of the list in identifying Thailand’s excellent cuisine, the recipe should have been given from scratch. Pad Thai paste is when you don’t have time to make the real dish!

Thanks for including the scratch Pad Thai paste recipe. I’m averse to buying the ready-made paste only because I want to avoid specialized ingredients taking up space in my fridge. I’d rather buy the tamarind puree which appears to be used in plenty of other recipes.

So… is there any chance you can substitute tamarind puree for the golf ball of tamarind pulp in your Pad Thai paste recipe? How much would you use?

I tried your scallop recipe with buna shimeji mushrooms for an Iron Chef challenge over the weekend. Everyone loved it :) I had no idea how cute those mushrooms were until I saw them in real life. Cute and delicious.. mmm…

I found your website through Chez Pim’s site, I was reading her instructions on making Pad-Thai–then I stumbled upon your latest post on … Pad-Thai! Thanks for a great post, I’d be book-marking your blog as well.

I think kids would luv it too. It’s colorful, so nutritious and looks delicious. My girls luv shimp ‘n’ stir-fry, I’m going to give this a try, I may up the peanuts ‘n’ not use so much spice. I’m enjoying browsing thru your site.

The photos are so mouth watering! Looks so good. I use a very similar recipe, but the quality of those photos puts me to shame. You can see a video of me preparing my pad Thai recipe at http://www.HomeThaiRecipes.com

Pad thai is one of my favourites and it really is so simple to make, it suprises me that people don’t make it more often!
Cherry x

I can only find ‘Tamarind concentrate’ OR ‘Tamarind puree’ in my local Chinese supermarket. Maybe i should find a new supermarket?! but for now, which do you think would be better for this dish? Would concentrate be better as the recipe calls for ‘juice’?
Thanks again!
– This is the tamarind concentrate found in the supermarket; http://importfood.com/media/sads1001.jpg

hi, when you make the pad thai sauce from scratch, all you need to do is to add it into the cooking right? or do i have to mix in a bowl with
2 teaspoons tamarind paste/concentrate
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 teaspoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2-4 teaspoons Sriracha or 1-2 teaspoons chili powder
to make a sauce before i cook?

Hi, i have the same question as Island..I got a little confused with the pad thai sauce and paste.The recipe calls for pad thai paste,that’s than mixed with other stuff like :
tamarind paste/concentrate,fish sauce,sugar,water and chili powder which makes the pad thai sauce.
At the bottom of the recipe,is that for the paste which needs to be mixed with other stuff to form the sauce?
Thanxx